Former Finnish ice hockey player Emma Terho (nee Laaksonen) and Kikkan Randall (USA, cross-country skiing) have been elected to the IOC Athletes’ Commission.

The participating athletes of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games had the opportunity to elect two new members and a record number of 83.86 per cent made use of it with Terho getting the most votes from the six candidates.

Emma Terho, 36, played in the top Finnish league for Espoo for 15 years in addition to four years of NCAA hockey at the Ohio State University and one season for SKIF Nizhni Novgorod in Russia. She represented Finland in five Olympic Winter Games – every edition from the inclusion of women’s ice hockey in Nagano 1998 until 2014 – and in eight IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championships. She won bronze medals at the 1998 and 2010 Olympics and in four World Championships. The mother of two had a break on the ice but staged a quick comeback during the Finnish playoffs in spring 2017 with Espoo United.

After continuing her studies in Finland, she has been working in the finance sector but also became active off the ice in sports as a member of the IIHF Women’s Committee since 2016, as the first female board member of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association since 2014 and as a member since 2006 and most recently as the chairperson of the Finnish Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commission.

Randall, meanwhile, is currently competing in her fifth Winter Games in PyeongChang. Earlier this week, she won the USA's first-ever Olympic gold medal in cross-country skiing, after topping the podium in the team sprint event alongside Jessica Diggins.

Both were elected for an eight-year term and replace current chairwoman and long-time U.S. ice hockey national team player Angela Ruggiero and member Adam Pengilly whose terms expire this month.